Okay.
Someone like him, whom one couldn't discern cultivation from, would certainly possess it if they claimed to.
Chu Lingwei sat down a short distance from Ru Feng, took out her fishing hook, baited it with a ten-thousand-year-old blood ginseng, and cast it into the water.
Having done this, Chu Lingwei turned her head and saw Ru Feng staring intently at her ten-thousand-year-old blood ginseng. Her brows furrowed slightly.
"Do you want my ten-thousand-year-old blood ginseng?" Rather than let him ask, she decided to offer it herself.
"You plucked this ginseng directly from its body, didn't you?" Ru Feng shook his head. This ten-thousand-year-old blood ginseng was of no use to him. "I suppose it must have been around for quite some years too."
Chu Lingwei was startled and quickly looked at her ten-thousand-year-old blood ginseng. She really didn't know how Uncle-Master Li Chen had managed to extract the blood ginseng from its body.
"I don't know. Someone gave it to me," Chu Lingwei replied as if unaware, shaking her head. "Is there any difference?"
"Of course there is," Ru Feng withdrew his gaze and explained, "Ginseng plucked directly from a ginseng's body will carry its luck and be more precious than ordinary ginseng."
Chu Lingwei seemed to understand.
"You mean, if this piece of blood ginseng was taken directly from its body, not only would it lose these things, but it would also lose cultivation?"
"That's right." A smile flickered in Ru Feng's eyes at Chu Lingwei's intelligence.
Chu Lingwei sighed inwardly, feeling even more sympathetic towards Uncle-Master Li Chen's past experiences at the Spiritual Cultivation Academy. He must have expended a great deal of his own cultivation by providing these blood ginsengs to those people.
"It's coming."
Seeing Chu Lingwei lost in thought for a moment, Ru Feng reminded her.
Chu Lingwei immediately came to her senses and indeed felt a current swimming towards her bait.
Using the same method, Chu Lingwei cast her net when the Nine-tailed Ice Fish entered her trap and threw it directly into her storage ring.
With Ru Feng here, she dared not send the Nine-tailed Ice Fish into her spatial realm, even though he hadn't shown any intention of harming her.
Chu Lingwei transmitted a message, instructing Shui Yi, who was cultivating within the ring, to place the Nine-tailed Ice Fish in a jade bottle to be nurtured, and to send it into the spatial realm when the time was right.
"Let's go catch another one."
Ru Feng seemed to have taken a liking to this fishing game. After Chu Lingwei successfully caught the Nine-tailed Ice Fish, he quickly led her to another spot without any pause.
"Ru Feng, let's stop fishing. Let's leave some here for the next cultivator to catch."
Chu Lingwei was never a greedy person. She had already caught over twenty, and with these being nurtured, they would reproduce quickly.
"No more cultivators will come here," Ru Feng shook his head. "I haven't seen a living creature in so long that I've lost count."
"No way, someone must come here eventually." Chu Lingwei looked up. She could only see thick ice rims, glaciers, and vast expanses of white mist. There was no view of anything above.
"You're the first cultivator to enter here," Ru Feng chuckled softly. "How were you able to enter the barrier?"
"What did you say?" Chu Lingwei was surprised. When she fell, she hadn't sensed any barrier at all and hadn't encountered any obstruction. "You're saying there's a barrier here?"
"Yes, there is a barrier. Neither spirit beasts nor cultivators can break through it to descend."
Ru Feng led Chu Lingwei to the deepest part of the ice ravine and pointed to the steaming lake. "Look at this lake. Is there anything different about it?"
Chu Lingwei stared at the lake before her. The surroundings were frozen, and the lake water was milky white, its depths obscured. However, the water was flowing; it was indeed lake water.
"I don't see a spirit eye, nor any point of flow, yet this water is live water."
"There is a type of water that can generate itself." Ru Feng flew to the center of the lake, his body swaying with the wind, as if boneless.
His immortal robes, like ice and purple, billowed with the wind. His face, not stunning but captivating the more one looked, was clear and refined, yet mysterious, approachable yet dangerous—truly like an immortal.
"Do you know?" Ru Feng, seeing that Chu Lingwei hadn't answered his question, flew in front of her and couldn't help but smile. "Are you looking at me?"
Chu Lingwei's face flushed. She had suddenly had an opportunity to examine the person before her and had ended up looking for a little too long.
"I've never heard of that before."
"No, you were looking at me just now, weren't you?" Ru Feng was very insistent. "Were you attracted by my face?"
"No," Chu Lingwei mumbled. She was merely observing him objectively.
"Yes, you were."
Ru Feng burst into laughter. As he laughed, the surrounding glaciers refracted light like crystals, creating a kaleidoscope of colors. The flow of the lake water also quickened, harmonizing with the multicolored spiritual light to form a breathtaking scene.
"Really, I wasn't."
Chu Lingwei felt that the person before her was far too confident.
"The more you explain, the more you conceal," Ru Feng reached out, took Chu Lingwei's hand, and led her towards the lake.
"What are you doing?"
Chu Lingwei's heart tightened. She wanted to pull her hand away, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't.
"Don't worry, come and feel the power of self-generating water." Ru Feng slowly flew with Chu Lingwei above the lake.
Unable to struggle, Chu Lingwei adopted a somewhat resigned attitude. It was then that she discovered Ru Feng was leading her in the direction of the lake's flow.
"This is so strange."
Chu Lingwei looked at the lake water. She felt that she was doing nothing, yet the spiritual energy within her body was slowly circulating, as if she were cultivating.
"This is the power of self-generating water."
Ru Feng continued to dance with Chu Lingwei over the lake, with all the surrounding spiritual energy converging towards them.
Chu Lingwei didn't actively guide the water-attribute spiritual energy into her body, but the energy seemed to have a will of its own, surging into her body and quickly merging with her existing spiritual energy. After growing stronger, it began to attract more.
This rate of cultivation was simply like cheating.
"Now you know what self-generating water is, right?" Ru Feng, seeing that Chu Lingwei had absorbed too much spiritual energy and would struggle if it continued, gently led her down to land on the lake.
"This is too heaven-defying," Chu Lingwei murmured to herself. "What's the difference between this and cheating?"
"Indeed."
Ru Feng's voice carried a hint of sadness. "Precisely because it's too heaven-defying, no one has been able to enter here for a very long time."
"Did spirit beasts and cultivators used to enter here?" Grandpa Yu had told her that the Spiritual Dragon Ravine used to have many spirit beasts, but she hadn't encountered a single one since entering.
"That was many years ago. I can't quite remember," Ru Feng turned around and led Chu Lingwei back in the direction they had come from.